In Greek mythology, Achilles, also Akhilleus or Achilleus (Ancient Greek ) was a hero of the Trojan War, the central character and greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad, which takes for its theme, not the War of Troy in its entirety, but specifically the Wrath of Achilles. He is known for being the most handsome of the heroes assembled at Troy,Plato, Symposium, 180a as well as the fleetest. Central to his myth is his love for his friend, Patroclus. For the relationship between the two, see Achilles and Patroclus

Birth

When Achilles was born, according to the most common version of the myth, Thetis tried to make him immortal by dipping him in the river Styx. But she forgot to wet the heel she held him by, leaving him vulnerable at that spot. (See Achilles' tendon.) In an earlier and less popular version of the story, Thetis anointed the boy in ambrosia and put him on top of a fire to burn away the mortal parts of his body. She was interrupted by Peleus and abandoned both father and son in a rage. Homer does not make reference to this invulnerability in the Iliad. To the contrary, he mentions Achilles being wounded.

Peleus gave him together with Patroclus (his cousin, friend, and, in many versions of the tale, lover) to Chiron the Centaur, on Mt. Pelion, to be raised.

Achilles in the Trojan War

Rage—sing, goddess, the rage of Achilles, the son of Peleus,

the destructive rage that brought countless griefs upon the Achaeans...

Achilles is the only mortal to experience consuming rage (menis). His anger is at some times wavering, at other times absolute. The humanization of Achilles by the events of the war is an important theme of the story.

Telephus

According to other reports in Euripides' lost play about Telephus, he went to Aulis pretending to be a beggar and asked Achilles to heal his wound. Achilles refused, claiming to have no medical knowledge. Alternatively, Telephus held Orestes for ransom, the ransom being Achilles' aid in healing the wound. Odysseus reasoned that the spear had inflicted the wound; therefore, the spear must be able to heal it. Pieces of the spear were scraped off onto the wound and Telephus was healed. This is an example of sympathetic magic.

Troilus

The Iliad

Homer's Iliad is the most famous narrative of Achilles' deeds in the Trojan War. The Homeric epic only covers a few weeks of the war, and does not narrate Achilles' death. It begins with Achilles' withdrawal from battle after he is dishonored by Agamemnon, the commander of the Achaean forces. Agamemnon had taken a woman named Chryseis as his slave, her father Chryses, a priest of Apollo, begged Agamemnon to return her to him. Agamemnon refused and Apollo sent a plague amonst the Greeks. Agamemnon consented, but then commanded that Achilles' slave Briseis be brought to replace Chryseis. Angry at the dishonor, and because he loved Briseis, Iliad 9.334-343. Achilles refused to fight or lead his Myrmidons alongside the other Greek forces.

Hoping to retain glory despite his abscence in the battle, Achilles prayed to his mother Thetis, asking her to plead with Zeus to allow the Trojans to push back the Greek forces. The Trojans, led by Hector, subsequently pushed the Greek army back toward the beaches and assualted the Greek ships. With the Greeks forces are on the verge of absolute destruction, Achilles consented to Patroclus leading the Myrmidons into battle, though Achilles would remain at his camp. Patroclus suceeded in pushing the Trojans back from the beaches, but was killed by Hector before he could lead a proper assualt on the city of Troy.

Hector versus Achilles

Enraged over the death of Patroclus, Achilles ended his refusal to fight and took the field killing many men in his rage but always seeking out Hector. Achilles even got in a fight with the river god Scamander who became angry that Achilles was choking his waters with all the men he killed. The god tried to drown Achilles but was stopped by Hera and Hephaestus. Zeus himself took note of Achilles rage and sent the gods to restrain him so that he would not go on to sack Troy itself, seeming to show that the inhindered rage of Achilles could defy fate itself as Troy was not meant to be destroyed yet. Finally Achilles found his prey, Achilles chased Hector around the wall of Troy three times before Athena, dressed as a Trojan, persuaded Hector to fight face to face. Achilles finally got his vengeance and killed Hector with a blow to the neck. He then tied Hector's body to his chariot and dragged it around the battlefield for thirteen days.

With the assistance of the god Hermes, Priam, Hector's father, went to Achilles tent and convinced Achilles to permit him to allow Hector his funeral rights. The final passage in the Iliad is Hector's funeral, after which the doom of Troy is just a matter of time.

Memnon

Cycnus, Penthesilea, and the death of Achilles

As predicted by Hector with his dying breath, Achilles was thereafter killed by Paris — either by an arrow to the heel (which may have subsequently become fatally infected, and is said to have been guided by Apollo), or in an older version by a knife to the back while visiting Polyxena, a princess of Troy.

Both versions conspicuously deny the killer any sort of valor owing to the common conception that Paris was a coward and not the man his brother Hector was, and Achilles remains undefeated on the battlefield (Paris was later killed by Philoctetes using the enormous bow of Heracles). His bones are mingled with those of Patroclus, and funeral games are held. He was represented in the lost Trojan War epic of Aktinos of Miletus as living after his death in the island of Leuke at the mouth of the Danube (see below).

The fate of Achilles' armor

The Cult of Achilles in Antiquity

Pomponius Mela tells that Achilles is buried in the island named Achillea, between Boristhene and Ister (De situ orbis, II, 7). And the Greek geographer Dionysius Periegetus of Bithynia, who lived at the time of Domitian, writes that the island was called Leuce "because the wild animals which live there are white. It is said that there, in Leuce island, reside the souls of Achilles and other heroes, and that they wander through the uninhabited valleys of this island; this is how Jove rewarded the men who had distinguished themselves through their virtues, because through virtue they had acquired everlasting honor” (Orbis descriptio, v. 541, quoted in Densuşianu 1913).

The Periplus of the Euxine Sea gives the following details: "It is said that the goddess Thetis raised this island from the sea, for her son Achilles, who dwells there. Here is his temple and his statue, an archaic work. This island is not inhabited, and goats graze on it, not many, which the people who happen to arrive here with their ships, sacrifice to Achilles. In this temple are also deposited a great many holy gifts, craters, rings and precious stones, offered to Achilles in gratitude. One can still read inscriptions in Greek and Latin, in which Achilles is praised and celebrated. Some of these are worded in Patroclus’ honor, because those who wish to be favored by Achilles, honor Patroclus at the same time. There are also in this island countless numbers of sea birds, which look after Achilles’ temple. Every morning they fly out to sea, wet their wings with water, and return quickly to the temple and sprinkle it. And after they finish the sprinkling, they clean the hearth of the temple with their wings. Other people say still more, that some of the men who reach this island, come here intentionally. They bring animals in their ships, destined to be sacrificed. Some of these animals they slaughter, others they set free on the island, in Achilles’ honor. But there are others, who are forced to come to this island by sea storms. As they have no sacrificial animals, but wish to get them from the god of the island himself, they consult Achilles’ oracle. They ask permission to slaughter the victims chosen from among the animals that graze freely on the island, and to deposit in exchange the price which they consider fair. But in case the oracle denies them permission, because there is an oracle here, they add something to the price offered, and if the oracle refuses again, they add something more, until at last, the oracle agrees that the price is sufficient. And then the victim doesn’t run away any more, but waits willingly to be caught. So, there is a great quantity of silver there, consecrated to the hero, as price for the sacrificial victims. To some of the people who come to this island, Achilles appears in dreams, to others he would appear even during their navigation, if they were not too far away, and would instruct them as to which part of the island they would better anchor their ships”. (quoted in Densuşianu)

The heroic cult of Achilles on Leuce island was widespread in Antiquity, not only along the sealanes of the Pontic Sea but also in maritime cities whose economic interests were tightly connected to the riches of the Black Sea.

Achilles from Leuce island was venerated as Pontarches the lord and master of the Pontic (Black) Sea, the protector of sailors and navigation. Sailors went out of their way to offer sacrifice. To Achilles of Leuce were dedicated a number of important commercial port cities of the Greek waters: Achilleion in Messenia (Stephanus Byzantinus), Achilleios in Laconia (Pausanias, III.25,4) Nicolae Densuşianu (Densuşianu 1913) even thought he recognized Achilles in the name of Aquileia and in the north arm of the Danube delta, the arm of Chilia ("Achileii"), though his conclusion, that Leuce had sovereign rights over Pontos, evokes modern rather than archaic sea-law."

Leuce had also a reputation as a place of healing. Pausanias (III.19,13) reports that the Delphic Pythia sent a lord of Croton to be cured of a chest wound. Ammianus Marcellinus (XXII.8) attributes the healing to waters (aquae) on the island.

The Cult of Achilles in Modern times: The Achilleion in Corfu

The name of Achilles

Laos has been construed by Gregory Nagy, following Leonard Palmer, to mean a corps of soldiers. With this derivation, the name would have a double meaning in the poem: When the hero is functioning rightly, his men bring grief to the enemy, but when wrongly, his men get the grief of war. The poem is in part about the misdirection of anger on the part of leadership.

Other stories about Achilles

In Homer's Odyssey, there is a passage in which Odysseus sails to the underworld and converses with the shades. One of these is Achilles, who when greeted as "blessed in life, blessed in death", responds that he would rather be a slave than be dead. This has been interpreted as a rejection of his warrior life, but also as indignity to his martyrdom being slighted. Achilles was worshipped as a sea-god in many of the Greek colonies on the Black Sea, the location of the mythical "White Island" which he was said to inhabit after his death, together with many other heroes.

Post-Homeric literature explores a pederastic interpretation of the love between Achilles and Patroclus. By the fifth and fourth centuries, the deep — and arguably ambiguous — friendship portrayed in Homer blossomed into an unequivocal erotic love affair in the works of Aeschylus, Plato, and Aeschines, and seems to have inspired the enigmatic verses in Lycophron's third century Alexandra that claim Achilles slayed Troilus in a matter of unrequited love.

The kings of the Epirus claimed to be descended from Achilles through his son. Alexander the Great, son of the Epiran princess Olympias, could therefore also claim this descent, and in many ways strove to be like his great ancestor; he is said to have visited his tomb while passing Troy.

Achilles fought and killed the Amazon Helene. Some also said he married Medea, and that after both their deaths they were united in the Elysian Fields of Hades — as Hera promised Thetis in Apollonius' Argonautica. In some versions of the myth, Achilles has a relationship with his captive Briseis.

Achilles in lost plays

There is another lost play with Achilles as the main character, The Lovers of Achilles, by Sophocles.

Spoken-word myths (audio)

Achilles in later art

Fiction

• Achilles appears in the novels Ilium and Olympos by science fiction author Dan Simmons.
• Achilles the novel by Elizabeth Cook

Film

• Piero Lulli in Ulysses (1955)
• Stanley Baker in Helen of Troy (1956)
• Arturo Dominici in La Guerra di Troia (1962)
• Derek Jacobi ^* in Achilles (Channel Four Television) (1995)
• Steve Davislim in La Belle Hélène (TV, 1996)
• Joe Montana in Helen of Troy (TV, 2003)
• Brad Pitt in Troy (2004)

Television

• In Class of the Titans, a new show for kids, one main character is desended from Achilles and inherited part of his invincibitlity, which helped him defeat the last evil in Pandora's Box, and his vulnerable heel.

Music

• Achilles is referred to in Bob Dylan's song, "Temporary Like Achilles".
• "Achilles Last Stand", by Led Zeppelin; from the album Presence, 1976, Atlantic Records.
• "Achilles' Revenge" is a song by Warlord.
• Achilles Heel is an album by the indie rock band Pedro the Lion.
• Achilles and his heel are referenced in the song "Special K" by the rock band Placebo.
• "Achilles' Heel" is a song by the UK band Toploader.
• "Achilles" is a song by the Colorado-based power metal band Jag Panzer, from the album Casting the Stones.
• Achilles is referenced in the Indigo Girls song "Ghost".
• Aong by Melbourne band Love Outside Andromeda called "Achilles (All 3)".
• "Achilles, Agony & Ecstasy In Eight Parts", by Manowar; from the album The Triumph of Steel, 1992, Atlantic Records.
• Although not mentioned by name, "Citadel" (about the Seige of Troy) by The Crüxshadows mentions Paris' arrow 'landing true'.

Namesakes

• The Royal New Zealand Navy gave the name HMNZS Achilles to an A class destroyer which served in World War II.

Notes

References

• Homer, Iliad
• Homer, Odyssey XI, 467-540
• Apollodorus, Bibliotheca III, xiii, 5-8
• Apollodorus, Epitome III, 14-V, 7
• Ovid, Metamorphoses XI, 217-265; XII, 580-XIII, 398
• Ovid, Heroides III
• Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica IV, 783-879
• Dante, The Divine Comedy, Inferno, V.

Bibliography

• Ileana Chirassi Colombo, “Heros Achilleus— Theos Apollon.” In Il Mito Greco, ed. Bruno Gentili & Giuseppe Paione, Rome, 1977;
• Anthony Edwards:
  • “Achilles in the Underworld: Iliad, Odyssey, and Æthiopis”, Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies, 26 (1985): pp. 215-227 ;
  • “Achilles in the Odyssey: Ideologies of Heroism in the Homeric Epic”, Beitrage zur klassischen Philologie, 171, Meisenheim, 1985 ;
  • “Kleos Aphthiton and Oral Theory,” Classical Quarterly, 38 (1988): pp. 25-30 ;
• Hélène Monsacré, Les larmes d'Achille. Le héros, la femme et la souffrance dans la poésie d'Homère, Paris, Albin Michel, 1984;
• Gregory Nagy:
  • The Best of The Acheans: Concepts of the Hero in Archaic Greek Poetry, Johns Hopkins University, 1999 (rev. edition);
  • The Name of Achilles: Questions of Etymology and 'Folk Etymology', Illinois Classical Studies, 19, 1994;
• Dale S. Sinos, The Entry of Achilles into Greek Epic, Ph.D. thesis, Johns Hopkins University;
• Johansson, Warren. Achilles. Encyclopedia of Homosexuality. Dynes, Wayne R. (ed.), Garland Publishing, 1990. p. 8

See also

• Achilles and Patroclus

External links

• The Story of Achilles and Patroclus
• Trojan War Resources
• Nicolae Densuşianu, Dacia Preistorică, 1913, I.4 Cult of Achilles: literary references to the island Leucos in Antiquity

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